The 2023 NHL Draft’s top defensemen: David Reinbacher, Tom Willander and more

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Yesterday we broke down the center group of the 2023 NHL Draft. Today we go to the other highly desired position, defensemen. The 2023 NHL Draft had not been the most appealing draft on this front early on, but as the season went on, more blueliners emerged that will be of significant interest to NHL teams. Today we break down the top names.

Tier 1

1. David Reinbacher
2. Dmitri Simashev

Tier 2

3. Tom Willander

Tier 3

4. Axel Sandin-Pellikka
5. Tanner Molendyk
6. Oliver Bonk
7. Mikhail Gulyayev
8. Lukas Dragicevic
9. Maxim Strbak

Tier 4

10. Etienne Morin
11. Arttu Karki
12. Theo Lindstein
13. Luca Cagnoni
14. Daniil Karpovich
15. Beau Akey
16. Caden Price
17. Cameron Allen
18. Gavin McCarthy
19. Andrew Gibson
20. Hunter Brzustewicz
21. Jakub Dvorak
22. Aram Minnetian
23. Andrew Strathmann
24. Emil Pieniniemi

Most scouts will name David Reinbacher, Tom Willander, Dmitri Simashev and Axel Sandin-Pellikka as the top-four defensemen in this draft, in some order, but that order is not consensus.

Given Reinbacher’s success versus men and not having to deal with a Russian variable, it’s highly likely he will be the first defenseman drafted. He has good size and mobility, he competes well and provides offense. He projects as a two-way high-in-the-lineup NHL defenseman.

In my opinion, Simashev is not far off Reinbacher as a pure player. He is bigger, while also being a strong skater and competitor who can make a lot of stops. Simashev has offense, but given what Reinbacher showed this year in a top pro league, I would say his puck game is superior. Simashev still has more than enough skill to move pucks in the NHL and log big minutes. A team will have to bite the bullet on his KHL contract for two more years minimum, but at some point, in the first round, someone likely will because 6-foot-4 defensemen who can skate and have skill are not easy to find.

Tom Willander is rising quickly. He’s one of the best skaters in this draft, while also having decent size, he plays hard and showed more offense as the season progressed. Colleague Max Bultman analogized his development to Jake Sanderson in his draft season and I don’t think it’s crazy to connect those dots. Willander will go very early in the draft.

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Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Mikhail Gulyayev are the two smaller high-end puck-moving defensemen in this draft. There are some scouts who love Gulyayev, who think he could be a top half of the first-round pick, and some who aren’t 100 percent sold they would use a second-round pick on him. He’s a first-round caliber puck-mover and skater, but given he’s not truly dynamic, 5-foot-10, and Russian, my bet is he goes in the second round. Sandin-Pellikka is a bit bigger, and more competitive so he should be the first of the two picked. Victor Soderstrom went No. 11, Nils Lundkvist went in the mid-20s, I’m guessing Sandin-Pellikka ends up somewhere in between there.

Oliver Bonk will quickly become appealing to teams. Outside Reinbacher and Simashev, the latter of whom has the KHL contract question, there isn’t another defenseman in this draft who has NHL size, mobility, puck-moving ability and can make stops other than Bonk. He’s not sexy, won’t put up big offensive totals or run guys over, but has all the makings of a second-pair defenseman. The other top defensemen with size either have skating/defending flaws (Dragicevic, Karki) or offense flaws (Strbak, Gibson, Dvorak and McCarthy).

Jakub Dvorak is an interesting one to watch for that reason. He’s huge, he competes hard, and projects to have secondary offense. He’s had a lot of injury issues, both this season and prior ones, but he’s a Tier-3 defense talent if healthy. If a team’s medical staff gives him the thumbs up, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go much higher than projected.

Karki and Karpovich are two favorites of mine that I may be a little out on a limb on, but I could see them going higher than expected on draft day. Both are big defensemen who skate well and have shown offensive abilities. Karki has legit skill and scoring ability, but has issues defending. Karpovich is a harder-to-play-against type but I don’t think he has as much natural skill. Regardless, I see a lot of pro in both of their games.

Tanner Molendyk I think has a chance to be a late first-round pick. He’s an outstanding skater who competes hard. He didn’t put up big point totals this season, but played big minutes for a successful Saskatoon team and often was on their PP2. He showed for Team Canada in the summer he could be a power-play guy for them. He reminds me a lot of players like Alexander Romanov and Mario Ferraro.

Etienne Morin, Beau Akey and Theo Lindstein are all 6-foot puck movers who can skate, and depending on who you ask in the league some are believers in them or lukewarm because they’re unsure what their exact NHL role will be.

Lukas Dragicevic’s landing spot will be interesting. There aren’t many top-four defensemen in the NHL with average size and skating flaws, but his offensive touch is quite good.

Maxim Strbak on the other hand lacks much offense, but he’s a big, mobile defender with excellent compete and enough hockey sense to play minutes at higher levels.

Finally, I will touch on Cameron Allen, one of the toughest evaluations in this draft class. As an underage, I saw a defenseman who zipped the puck around the ice, whose brain I thought was excellent and was a legit playmaker to go with strong mobility, a highly-physical game and a powerful shot. He looked like he could be the first defenseman drafted. This season, he fought the puck. His decisions and passing were chaotic at times and the offense evaporated. Which is the real player? Is it somewhere in the middle? I wish I had those answers.

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)